Chlorpyrifos is sprayed on crops like almonds, citrus fruits, apples, and cherries. Chlorpyrifos use on farms and fields in close proximately to pregnant women has been linked to autism and lower IQs in children.

The news that the EPA would continue to allow the spraying of chlorpyrifos alarmed doctors and other public health officials but what’s even more interesting is that according to several recent Freedom of Information Act requests, Pruitt met with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris at a Houston hotel just twenty days prior to making his controversial decision.

A spokesperson for the EPA has stated that the two did not talk about chlorpyrifos, but the meeting was eyebrow-raising especially given the timing and considering that Dow has not been a stranger to the current Administration or Washington politics. In February, President Trump handed Dow CEO Liveris the pen used to sign an executive order creating task forces to roll back government regulations. And in 2016, Dow spent more than $13.6 million on lobbying.

Administrator Pruitt should reverse his actions in the name of public health. In the meantime, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation should do what the Environmental Protection Agency failed to do, ban the agricultural use of chlorpyrifos.